- New York Times: Proposed Rule for Big Trucks Aims at Cutting Fuel Emissions
- San Francisco Chronicle: Federal scientists say 2015 on pace to be globe’s warmest
- The Hill: Bill filed to eliminate the gas tax
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 6/19/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Kathryn A. Wolfe and Alex Guillén
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’: PHASE 2 RULE EXPECTED TODAY: Three industry and environmental sources tell Pro that today is the day the EPA and Transportation Department will release their proposed Phase 2 fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks. That covers tractor-trailers, garbage trucks, delivery vans, school buses — basically anything bigger than a Ford F-150. It builds on a 2011 rule that required trucks to decrease consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent to 20 percent of 2010 levels, depending on the type. This new rule, which covers post-2018 model year vehicles, is expected to go further than that first rule, both in scope and goal (greens are pushing for 40 percent improvement over 2010 levels by 2027). The rule is expected to consider not just boosts to engine efficiency but other fuel-saving initiatives such as improved aerodynamics and lighter-weight materials. Props to Pro’s Alex Guillén for the scoop.
Why the big deal? Trucks make up just 4 percent of the U.S. fleet but around 20 percent of U.S. transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.
IT’S FRIDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
“The ghost of a steam train, echoes down my track. It’s at the moment bound for nowhere.” http://bit.ly/1esIgt4. (H/t Maggie Chan)
SENATE SWIFTLY KICKS STB BILL TO HOUSE: The Senate quietly passed a reauthorization Thursday night of the Surface Transportation Board, sending on to the House a measure that would expand voluntary arbitration tools rail carriers and customers can use to resolve rate cases. The bill would also give the oversight board the authority to investigate issues other than rate cases, require the STB to establish a database of complaints, order the board to submit quarterly reports on those complaints and expand the board’s roster from three to five members. The bill: http://1.usa.gov/1flP5wy.
The head of the American Chemistry Council heralded the measure’s passage with praise. “Over the past few years, a growing number of policymakers have learned what so many manufacturers, farmers and energy producers know all too well: the Surface Transportation Board and the nation’s freight rail polices are in desperate need of modernization,” ACC president and CEO Cal Dooley said in a written statement.
U.S. TRAVEL CEO SAYS FEDS ARE BEATING DOWN COMPETITION FOR U.S. AIRLINES: Speaking out about the ongoing tiff over Open Skies agreements with Gulf carriers, the U.S. Travel Association’s CEO, Roger Dow, told MT on Thursday that the group is “totally opposed to rolling back, curtailing, eliminating flights from a very important source of where we get business to the United States — not only for the travel industry, but for everybody. … It’s a situation where you say, gee, do you want three airlines calling the shots for how the U.S. does their contracts, having the administration basically beat down competition for them? That’s not the America I grew up in.” The group pointed this week to a new Oxford Economics study on Open Skies agreements, saying that “freezing new flights by competing Gulf airlines — as the U.S. legacy carriers have proposed — would threaten Open Skies policy, have a negative impact on America’s economy and create new hurdles to achieving the U.S. goal of attracting 100 million international visitors per year established under the National Travel and Tourism Strategy.” http://bit.ly/1BnaFuT
WAYS AND MEANS MARKS CALENDAR FOR REPATRIATION HEARING: A week after its first brainstorming hearing on shoring up the Highway Trust Fund, the House Ways and Means Committee will meet again Wednesday to talk transportation funding, this time focusing on using repatriation to fill the waning fund. The Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, headed by Rep. David Reichert, is handling this one. Pro Tax’s Brian Faler explains (http://politico.pro/1IS6vLc) that “taxing the roughly $2 trillion U.S. companies have in overseas profits has emerged as a leading option for filling a big budget hole in the highway program, though it is also controversial. Critics say it would siphon money away from efforts to reform the tax code, generate big, unexpected tax bills for companies and potentially violate a pledge many Republicans have taken to oppose tax increases.” Hearing deets: http://1.usa.gov/1MQBxDX.
Republican division: Not all GOP leaders on the Ways and Means Committee are fans of repatriation, a reflection of a greater divide among House Republicans on the issue. For example, Rep. Kevin Brady — the third-most ranking Republican on the panel — opposes the idea of using revenue from U.S. corporate dollars brought home from abroad to help pay for a long-term highway bill. “Reforms to the tax code shouldn’t be used for more spending,” Brady told POLITICO. But he didn’t bad-mouth next week’s hearing, saying instead that “the chairman is exploring all the options, which is exactly the right thing to do, to see if there is consensus going forward.” Rep. Charles Boustany is also opposed to the idea. http://politico.pro/1GvrpP9
SENATORS UNVEIL BRUSHED-UP PASSENGER RAIL BILL: Sens. Roger Wicker and Cory Booker are out with a freshly revamped passenger rail bill they took some time to expand following last month’s deadly Amtrak derailment. Waiting an extra five weeks to roll out the proposal, the duo added language that would require the entire passenger rail industry to create plans for reducing over-speed derailments while operators work to implement positive train control technology. The measure would also provide more grant and loan options to help with PTC compliance and would require more signage to mark swaths of track where derailments are more likely to occur.
City slickers vs. country bumpkins: The Senate bill is similar to the Amtrak reauthorization the House passed in March, but the measures differ in their priorities for the Northeast Corridor and rail service in rural areas. The Senate’s version, for example, doesn’t include the House’s funding set-aside for the Northeast Corridor in the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program.
LaHOOD SAYS IT’S GAS-TAX TIME: Articulating a sentiment many in Congress don’t want to hear right now, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told senators on Thursday that it’s time to “come to grips with the idea we have to raise the gas tax.” Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch maintains, though, that a substantial hike in the gas tax is an unrealistic proposition that is just too unpopular to become law. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1QFXsnw.
FEINSTEIN DROPS DRONE REGULATON BILL: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it’s just not fair for drones to be able to fly around willy nilly, unregulated, as long as they’re not being used for commercial purposes. And so the senator introduced a bill this week that would require the FAA to develop rules for both recreational drone flight and the manufacture of the devices. In its flight regulations, the agency would have to set a limit on maximum altitude, restrictions on where the devices can be flown and prohibitions related to weather and time of day. For the manufacturing rules, the FAA would have to bar manufacturers from making drones that can fly beyond a certain altitude, require the installation of sensors or software to avoid collisions and mandate systems to prevent drones from being flown close to airports and other protected airspace, among many other stipulations. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1ReqLZn. The bill: http://1.usa.gov/1LiHcVQ.
ETHANOL GROUP BACKS DOT ON RAIL SAFETY: Oil companies are pursuing a court challenge to key portions of the fuel-train safety rules that DOT finalized last month, but some of its occasional foes in the ethanol industry are taking the opposite view. Pro Energy’s Elana Schor reports that the biofuels trade group Growth Energy has asked to intervene on behalf of DOT’s timeframe for retrofitting fuel-train tank cars in the brewing legal battle in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The American Petroleum Institute-backed “challenge threatens to upend [DOT’s] final rule and will introduce substantial financial and regulatory uncertainty” for ethanol-shipping members, Growth wrote in its motion.
A spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association declined to comment on whether it would consider a similar strategy. Check out the filing here: http://politico.pro/1J6tViM.
MT MAILBAG:
— Reps. Peter Welch and Reid Ribble sent a letter this week to House leaders, calling on them to allow a “Queen of the Hill” rule to let lawmakers vote on various Highway Trust Fund proposals at once, passing the one that gets the most support. “By mid-summer, the Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent and our nation will again be left without a long term transportation plan,” the bipartisan duo wrote. “This approach will ensure that the will of the House is adopted and predictability and certainty in our transportation program is restored.” The letter http://politico.pro/1BnwTwz
— Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent a letter this week asking the Justice Department to investigate “anticompetitive, anti-consumer conduct and misuse of market power in the airline industry.” The senator points to remarks about “discipline” airline executives made last week at an aviation meeting in Florida, questioning whether those statements scared Southwest Airlines into backing down on some of its grand expansion plans. “Consumers are paying sky-high fares and are trapped in an uncompetitive market with a history of collusive behavior,” Blumenthal wrote. “If you find that these comments were coordinated to punish Southwest Airlines’ announcement of capacity increases, I urge you to use all the tools at your disposal to punish this anti-competitive and anti-consumer behavior.” The letter: http://politico.pro/1GvrAdm.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— The best handouts and the jets that didn’t sell at the Paris Air Show. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1ReEcbD
— The Supreme Court says states can refuse to issue controversial specialty license plates — such as those with the Confederate battle flag. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1dMBKMC
— Dallas sues U.S. as fight over local airport escalates. The AP: http://yhoo.it/1ReCIhu
— U.N. aviation agency downgrades safety ratings of Thai body. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1Bn6bUV
— California reveals details of self-driving car accidents. LA Times: http://lat.ms/1QFUYpe
— China aircraft CEO resigns during vacation, can’t be contacted. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1GliOeX
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 43 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 104 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 510 days.
Tags: policy, transportation